Love That Lets Go
by LovelyChaotic1
Summary: Fresh out of college, Maya Hart is still discovering herself. She had learned to let things go, it had become a second nature. However, as things begin disappearing from her life more frequently, she struggles to hold on to the one thing she had never believed in: hope. Follow Maya as she plunges into the deep end of adulthood, and attempts at learning how to love once again.


**Formally known as Torispeace, I have decided to start with a clean slate.**

 **My oh my, has it been a while. I have left numerous stories incomplete and it is safe to say that they will more than likely stay that way. But who doesn't love a fresh start?**

 **This story will be set in the future, and will include most characters from the show, as well as the introduction of a few OCs and extras. I have to give credit to Hanna Kritz (whose story** _ **Time Does Funny Things**_ **is uncompleted, which I am secretly upset about, but totally worth the read and I highly recommend it) for the inspiration her story has given me to pick this hobby of mine back up.**

 **PLEASE READ BELOW**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not, in any way, own the (now cancelled) Disney Channel television show, Girl Meets World. The show belongs solely to the writers and producers, as well as the characters, with the exception of the OCs introduced throughout this story. I have done my best to research facts about certain and specific places, occupations, degrees, etc., therefore, if any of the statements made in this story do not accurately line up with a specific topic, I do apologize. The goal is to make this story as realistic as possible.**

 **Enjoy.**

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 _Love That Lets Go_

 _Chapter 1_

 _Wednesday, November 3_ _rd_ _, 2023._

 _2:34pm._

She looked down at the watch on her wrist. There was still time to kill before her 3 o'clock meeting.

The wind beat against her face as the snow fell from the sky onto her clothes and tangled itself in her golden locks. She looked to her right and reached for the handle of the book store located next to her office building. The door swung open, the bell chiming upon her arrival, the cold air rushing its way into the warm building. Goosebumps arose along her arms as her body attempted to adjust to the temperature change. Her gloved hand reached up to pull her knit hat from her head. A few sprinkles of melted snow ran down her scalp as she shook her head away from the hat.

"Maya, sweetie!"

The blonde looked up, trying to locate the familiar voice calling her name. Yes, there was Mrs. Adams. The little old lady rounded the corner of the register she stood at, arms wide open.

"Hello, Mrs. Adams," Maya Hart accepted the warm hug and slightly squeezed the small woman. "It's good to see you."

"Oh, dear, it is always my pleasure!" Mrs. Adams flashed a wide grin and back away, giving Maya room to enter the store. "It has been so long…"

Maya sighed. She knew it had been a while. In fact, 3 months to be exact. Despite this being her favorite book store in all of Manhattan, she found it difficult to enter the doors, afraid of reopening other doors as well.

Maya pushed past the ache in her chest and smiled at the woman, "Well, I am here now."

"And to see my, I'm assuming!" Mrs. Adams cackled and spun on her heel.

Maya chuckled as she watched Mrs. Adams retreat to the back of the counter. She playfully shook her head at the witty comment and made her way farther into the store. She came across a bookshelf and began thumbing her way through the titles. Reading was a passion of hers; one of many that she would actually care to admit. Back in high school, Maya thoroughly enjoyed painting and sketching. She would subconsciously lose herself in the art of how the brush would swipe across the canvas, or how the graphite would scratch the pure piece of paper. It was not simply just her passion, it was what fueled her, what gave her life, what breathed oxygen into her lungs. That is, until her senior year of high school. Maya had submitted an application to NYU in hopes of being accepted to their art program. She vividly recalled the seemingly endless weeks of waiting by the mailbox in the apartment complex, hounding the mailman when she did not receive the letter, the amount of money she spent on buying Anxiolytic from a classmate, merely trying to ease her nerves. Her old friend, Lucas Friar, had eventually caught her making a deal with said classmate one afternoon after school…

Maya vigorously shook her head. She would not allow herself to think about that memory.

Needless to say, it ended the way almost all mistakes do: badly. However, once she finally received the letter from NYU, the medication was no longer in her system and she could hear the pounding of her heart in her chest, as well as the ringing in her ears. The one thing she could not hear, however, was the opening of the letter. That was the one silent thing about that moment. She didn't waste any time reading the full introduction, she skipped to the words she had been waiting for, the ones she had worked so hard for, the ones she had almost gotten arrested for— _We regret to inform you…_

She tore her eyes away and shoved the letter to her chest.

No.

She read it wrong.

Maybe that medication _was_ still in her system.

She pulled the letter up again and decided to read the entire introduction this time, however, coming to the same conclusion.

 _This can't be right._

 _This one was meant for a different Maya Penelope Hart-Hunter._

Oh, who was she kidding. Who else would have _that_ name, too?

She crumbled the letter into a ball and threw it against the wall of the mail room in her apartment building. Any desire Maya had to continue her artistic abilities, it was thrown away, her dreams shattering against the wall with the wadded paper.

Pulling herself back to reality, Maya checked her watch for the second time.

 _3:02pm._

"Shit," She mumbled under her breath. She whipped her head around her shoulder in fear that Mrs. Adams heard her, but the small woman remained focused on a stack of papers in front of her. This was the third meeting she would be late for this week, and it was only Wednesday. Quickly, she messily threw her hat back onto the top of her head and straightened the scarf around her neck. She soaked in the warmth of the building before she had to exist and said an abrupt goodbye to Mrs. Adams before pushing her way out of the musty store.

The wind harshly threw itself at her face, burning her eyes, making them water. She made a mental note to apply a generous amount of Chapstick later. Her eyes began to focus in the daylight and the blinding appearance of the snow. She swiftly and carefully placed one foot in front of the other, stumbling and slipping along the way, until she reached her office building across the street. She hustled through the revolving door and waved hello to the receptionist. Her heels clicked against the marble floor as she made her way toward the elevator doors. She silently cursed herself for wearing such uncomfortable shoes. Although she did not expect to be late to another meeting this week—or this month, if she was lucky—she could have at least stored a more sensible pair of shoes underneath her desk.

Maya mashed the _up_ arrow of the elevator repeatedly. She had a method: rapidly press the button fifteen times in a row, pause, and repeat. Maybe it didn't actually speed the elevator cart up, but it occupied her time, and she had sworn that she would never be caught dead taking the stairs of a forty-story building. Finally, the bell chimed, and the elevator doors began to open. Maya attempted to push past the sea of people flooding out of the doors, but her small frame was sloshed around, as was the melting snow inside of her shoe. At last, she found her way inside and quickly pushed the floor number that her office was located on, and silently thanked God that the meeting was being held in the conference room of that same floor.

She checked her watch again.

 _3:10pm._

She tapped her foot impatiently to the jingle playing over the speakers, earning several glances from the people who stayed in the elevator. She watched as the digital screen above her head counted out the floors as they passed. A few stops were made along the way, and she mentally cursed the people who were unaware of her haste. She seemed to be doing that more frequently, cursing people inside of her own head, that is. She peered at the screen once more.

 _24_

 _25_

 _26_

The elevator finally stopped, and the doors opened. Maya rushed out and rounded the corner to her office.

She checked her watch one more time.

 _3:18pm._

She unlocked the door, jogged to her desk, aimlessly snatched papers from a stack, and ran back out. She didn't bother relocking the door, there was no time. She ran down the hallway of the 26th floor and clutched the mess of papers between her arm and chest. Her feet were screaming at her, her lungs ached for air, and her palms were sweating. She began to think of the repercussions of missing yet another meeting. She was lucky enough to have been offered this job in the first place. After graduating from Columbia with a degree in business management, Maya had no idea what she wanted to pursue. However, her longtime best friend, Riley Matthews, had recommended Maya for the job. During the interview, Maya had been sure that she blew her chance, from nervously mentioning her inexperience and lack of technical skill. Without much hope, she began filling out other applications for small, part-time jobs that would pay the bills. However, Maya was called no longer than a week later and began her first job in the real world. She could not let her careless actions be the reason she gets fired, she had come a long way. There was no way in hell that she would let—

"Oof," Maya huffed as she bumped into a wall.

The papers in her arm were now strewn across the floor around her. She reached to straighten her skirt as she sighed. The meeting was surely almost over, and she didn't even make an appearance.

 _There goes your job,_ Maya thought to herself.

She reached to grab the papers that were thrown from her arms when a hand entered her vision. She looked up from the floor and her eyes landed on a pair of familiar blue ones, eyes she had never thought she would be seeing any time soon. So, it was in fact _not_ a wall she had run into; it was a man. She hesitantly grasped the hand offered to her and was effortlessly pulled from her position on the ground. She finally got a good look at his face. The man's chestnut hair was slicked back and styled, while he wore a suit jacket and a button-down shirt. Papers long forgotten, Maya stared into the comforting eyes of the man that once made her weak in the knees.

"Hello, Maya," Joshua Matthews smiled warmly at the blonde, as if it were causal day-to-day occurrence that they—literally—bumped into each other in the hall of her office building. "Long time no see."

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 **Thank you for reading…more to come!**


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